#27 Ken from Get English Tips (Teacher Interview)

I talk to Ken - a Scottish English teacher living in Thailand.

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Transcript

Michael: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the English with Michael Podcast, the best place to come to study English as a second language as well as the practice, the British accent with me, Michael Lavers as your teacher Hello English learners and welcome back to the English with Michael podcast. I have another special episode for you today because it's interview day, so once a month I have an interview with could be a student or a teacher or anyone. to talk about English language and other topics. And today I am talking with Ken from get English tips. Ken is a native British English teacher and he's from Scotland so he has a nice Scottish accent as well. At the moment he's living in Thailand teaching English to university graduates and it was really fun. We spoke about a variety of topics related to English and teaching and learning language in general as well and a little bit about travel too. So if you like what Ken has to say, you can find out more over on his Instagram or his website. I will put all of his links in the show notes of this episode. So don't forget to check him out there. So I hope you enjoy what we have to say. Here is my conversation with Ken. I a m here today talking with Ken. So how are you today?

Ken: 1:48

I'm very well Michael, how are you?

Michael: 1:49

Yes, I'm also very well, it's so good to, to talk with you for the first time and meet you.

Ken: 1:55

Absolutely. We've kind of been backwards and forwards on uh, on Instagram. A couple of things. Messaging. So this is the first actual contact, right?

Michael: 2:04

Yeah, it's exciting. Um, I tried to like find out a little bit about you online, but.

Ken: 2:11

oh really?

Michael: 2:11

Oh yeah, of course. I'll have to do my preparation. I'm interested to know more though. So maybe can you tell me a little bit about where you're from and where you are now? Cause I think you're not in the UK perhaps.

Ken: 2:25

That's right. Yeah. Well, obviously my name's Ken. I'm from Scotland originally in the, in the UK. And, uh, I left the UK in 2003, I think I was at the end of 2003. And, I ended up going to Portugal. I had my own business in the UK and uh, in, in finance. That was my background in finance and, uh, I decided enough was enough. So, uh, I had this map in my office at home and I thought I want to leave. We are able to go. And the map was in Europe, so I came to close my eyes and put the pin in the map and ended up in Portugal. So I went there two weeks later with my bag and my dog and not knowing anything about the place at all. So I stayed there for a couple of years and learned the language there, from the television mostly. And then about, uh, after that I moved to Spain and I lived there for a few years, learned the language in Spain and uh, I worked in various countries- Italy, Bulgaria where else? And Romania as well. And, uh, I decided that the 2008, 2009 crash, the economy crash was happening. And My, my business was in financing and property and I thought, right, what shall I do? And, uh, I ended up coming to visit my sister in Thailand and, uh, I've been here ever since. That's been 10 years in Thailand. Yeah. So I quite enjoy, I'm over here. I'm teaching university graduates every year and to work for the aviation industry, you know, if it's flight attendants, et cetera. So been doing now for about five, six years. And so I'm preparing them for business, English, preparing them for interview English, uh, this kind of thing, you know? And so yes, I've been doing that for about six years in Thailand, Bangkok.

Michael: 4:25

That sounds amazing. That sounds really cool. So you've been away from the UK for quite a while then.

Ken: 4:31

Yeah, I mean that's what, 16, 16 years. I can't believe it. It's just flown in. Yeah.

Michael: 4:39

I was gonna say, do you ever get homesick or do you ever miss it?

Ken: 4:42

Well, funnily enough, I actually, um, I considered Spain my home cause I lived there for so long. I lived in Spain, in the south of Spain for about six years and I learned the language and had a hosue there and everything. So when I left Spain and I got really homesick for Spain, um, but I kinda go over it and I guess Thailand's more home, but I reckon one day or soon I'll be back in the UK I think. Yeah, I miss my mom and dad and everything.

Michael: 5:09

Yeah, of course. Of course. There's always like connection in the end. At the end of the day.

Ken: 5:12

That's it, exactly mate. Exactly. Exactly.

Michael: 5:15

Nice. I, I've been, I love Spain. I've been, I've been there before, but I've never been to Thailand, but I'm planning to go in December this year, so I'm really excited. So, you know, maybe you can get tips and stuff.

Ken: 5:25

Yeah. Why, why you're coming to Bangkok. Or are you going to the islands?

Michael: 5:28

We're going to Chiang Mai. Actually, I heard, I heard it was a little bit less our crazy compared to Bangkok

Ken: 5:35

Chiang Mai is excellent. It's a beautiful place. So idyllic, You know and calm and nice weather and everything. Everyone in Bangkok loves Chang Mai, you know, beautiful place. Nice place to go.

Michael: 5:48

perfect. Perfect. Um, I, one thing I noticed on your Instagram especially is you get a lot of questions of people asking you, you know, you know what I'm going to say like, how did you learn English? Or you know, where are you from? And I think many people have a hard time believing perhaps that you're native. Right?

Ken: 6:08

A native speaker! Is this'cause of my accent, right? Yeah. Yeah, I can. I've had are you Russian. Are you German? Are you French? I've had all of these. You have questions, but really I just, it's quite funny. I actually, you know, I mean when they said no, no, I'm an Native speaker, they're like: really where are you from? But a few people actually say, are you from Scotland? I can hear your, the R in your, in your speaking. So this came to determines that you're from Scotland. And I was like, yeah, yeah. So yeah, always get that, where are you from.

Michael: 6:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love the Scottish accent. I felt like my accent is so boring. I, you know, I'm from the very south southwest of the UK.

Ken: 6:50

South west alright. Is that like Cornwall area is it?

Michael: 6:51

Yeah. Yeah. Have you been to Cornwall before?

Ken: 6:54

I've never, but that's like the English Riviera isn't it?

Michael: 6:58

Yeah, that's exactly where I live. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful, beautiful, nice place. It's a nice place. It's kind of very far away from the rest of the UK or it feels that way anyway.

Ken: 7:08

It's kind of like its own world anyway, isn't it? It's Kinda like.. Do C ornwall people actually feel part of England? It's Kinda like separate isn't it?

Michael: 7:18

yeah, in a way. I mean, I guess it used to be its own country as far as I'm aware, like a few centuries ago. But yeah, in a way it kind of feels separate and everywhere kind of up is considered, you know, north country. It was all kind of grouped together.

Ken: 7:33

Yeah. Everything's north to Cornwall isn't it actually to be honest?

Michael: 7:35

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I'm going up north. I'll where to. Oh just Bristol. It's like not very far at all.

Ken: 7:45

So are you well travelled?

Michael: 7:48

Uh, I don't, I don't know. I've been around Europe quite a bit and I've been to Asia once and this year it'll be my second time to Asia.

Ken: 7:57

Where did you go before?

Michael: 7:59

In Asia?

Ken: 8:00

Yeah.

Michael: 8:00

Ah, like Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong.

Ken: 8:04

Wow. A lot of my students love Taiwan. Really? Really love it there. You know, they spend to be beautiful, really nice people and everything, you know?

Michael: 8:12

Yeah. Yeah. It's a really beautiful place. It's not so kind of, I mean I don't have much to compare it to you, but like compared to Hong Kong, it seems a bit more laid back, a bit less western as well I suppose because of that.

Ken: 8:26

It's good. A lot of my students really love Taiwan. Really, really love it, you know? Yeah. Cause it's pretty close to here.

Michael: 8:34

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess it's, it's probably the same as us going to like from the UK to France or Spain. It's like the same kind of flight maybe.

Ken: 8:41

Yeah. I think, I think it's about maybe three or four hours from your, so it's probably like the south of Spain or so like, you know, certainly from Scotland anyway about four hours, three hours.

Michael: 8:50

Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And, but yeah, I mean, you sound very well traveled as well. I've never lived in another country unlike you. So like what, what inspired you to make that change from kind of finance to moving and teaching as well?

Ken: 9:04

Well, I at school, my my favourite subject in school was French, I loved French. And me ann a couple of guys used to just, uh, we were kind of nerds, if you like. And we always used to make up our own conversations in French and just have a laugh. And then when I was about 16, we actually went to France on a football trip and that was really exciting, you know, and, uh, we were able to speak to a French person for the first time. Uh, we just asked someone, what time is it in French you know, but we thought wow! We've spoken to someone in France- can't believe it. Um, so I love, I love languages. And I also also also like finance as well. Um, but I remember when I was in Spain, one of my Spanish friends, they asked me something about the, the perfect tense of English. This was before I was into teaching. And to be honest with you, I didn't know what they were talking about, about the perfect tense. I had no idea at all what the perfect tense was. And it kind of shocked me cause I didn't really know a lot about my own language. So, uh, this is when I started looking into what, what is the English language? And uh, I thought, right, I'm going to move to Thailand. So let's get all my qualifications in teaching. So that's basically how I ended up in the teaching. You know, cause I thought, right, it's something to fall back on if I can't get into finance when I get to Thailand. So I ended up, yeah, I ended up teaching over here because of that.

Michael: 10:36

Yeah, yeah. Perfect. Yeah, I had exactly the same experience where you kind of realise that there's so much about your own language you don't know, which is a really strange thing. And when I was, yeah, when I was studying it and learning it how to, how to teach, it's, it's amazing how much you have to study and learn it. It seems like it should be natural for you, but it's really not.

Ken: 10:58

Absolutely. Did you, I don't know about you, did you ever get taught the structure, et Cetera of English at school? I can't remember ever getting taught, you know, like this is the subject, this is the object, this is the verb, this is the past participle. I can't remember all of that at all.

Michael: 11:12

So maybe that's something that is just kind of expected to be kind of inherent in you as you're learning. And I just remember, I remember, I think maybe my class was a bit kind of lower than why I would like, cause I remember the teacher always talking about like this is an adjective. This is now and, and we will have 16 by this point

Ken: 11:36

Yeah, I can't remember anything. It's all about, well, I remember reading books at English, English class and comprehensions and such like, but I cannot remember the ins and outs of grammar at all. Maybe I did, but I cannot remember it. Yeah. And so I, and, and when I was in, actually once I started r esearching the English language actually helped me to speak Spanish better because I understood my language and then I was like, a ll r ight, so that t his i s how the structure of Spanish is under understood a w hole l ot better and i t helped me to speak Spanish a little bit better, you know?

Michael: 12:11

Yeah, definitely. It's nice to put it in context as well and see, especially with European languages, there are many similarities and things like that. Yeah, I think it definitely helps.

Ken: 12:21

Absolutely. Absolutely. I always try and say that to students, you know, certainly here in Thailand, although the structure's a little bit different. I always get my students to kind of question their own language. If they're asked me questions about English, you know, I was always get them to question the Thai language and how it's structured, etc. And that, that Kinda helps them to understand English a little bit better for you, you know?

Michael: 12:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, one thing that really fascinates me is how languages on the opposite side of the world, they, they can be very different, but in a way they're also quite similar. Like it's almost like this kind of ability to form a language is you know, relatively the same all over the world.

Ken: 13:01

Yeah, absolutely. I think in Thai, so the Thai language, which the basics are similar but structure is very, very different. They don't have, in the Thai language, for example, they don't have articles, for example, you know, and uh, there are languages very, um, what do you call it? Um, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?

Michael: 13:24

Tonal?

Ken: 13:24

Tonal That's the word. Yeah. It's very, very tonal. You know, yourself, there's six like different tones, i f you like, you know, s o if you see the t one wrong, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you're actually saying the wrong word. You know, so i t t akes s ome, you know, if I'm speaking Thai and classroom just as a joke or something, it takes them a little while to click on what a m I actually saying to them, you know?

Michael: 13:46

Oh yeah. I guess the context would help as well. You can't just, start talking about something random.

Ken: 13:52

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Always try. Always try and speak Thai in the classroom as well, at least a little bit to show them, you know, it's okay to make mistakes. I'm not per..., I'm not, but I'm a teacher, but I'm not perfect. I can speak Thai. I try, but I'm always going to make mistakes and I'm not scared to make mistakes. And you should be the same when you're speaking English, you know?

Michael: 14:11

Hmm. That's a really good point. Yes. So maybe if you do make a mistake, they can see that you're kind of laughing at yourself. You're not too sad about it and people.

Ken: 14:19

Absolutely. Yeah. I think, I don't know, I don't know if you know yourself, but out here in the Asian countries it's very kinda exam orientated and grammar orientated when they're learning a language. And I think it's to do with the schools not having native English speakers to practice with. So they've got nothing to judge the students language skills, you know? So it's always grammar and there has to be correct. And, and I think it puts a lot of students off when they come to speak English, you know, to say you don't need to be perfect all the time. There's nobody's perfect when they're speaking. The way you learn in school is just the way I, you know, because they've not had a native English speaker to practice with, so don't be scared to kinda speak, you know?

Michael: 15:05

Yeah, definitely not. Yeah, I guess the exam's kind of almost train you to be perfect. They want you to be perfect. And you know, language just doesn't really work like that in the real world, does it?

Ken: 15:16

No, at all. I think. I think like they're special out here in Thailand, you've got their TOEIC exams and it really is geared up for you to pass an exam rather than to speak the language. I mean, I remember there was a student, her, her TOEIC score was about 800 you know, it was very, very high, but she couldn't speak. She knew how to pass an exam, but she didn't know how to speak properly, you know? And I fell. I was really, really sad. You know, it's just the education system and in Thailand, I guess.

Michael: 15:45

Yeah. It seems, it seems like it's that way in many countries, but at least because of the Internet and people are using Instagram and online lessons, I think it's becoming, it's becoming easier to improve in your, in your own way, I think.

Ken: 15:59

Absolutely. I mean, it's gonna take a long while for, you know, educational departments in the each country to change. You know, they're still very much stuck in their ways, you know, and a lot of students that have much more kind of resources. I mean, I've only been on Instagram a couple of months and I'm absolutely amazed that there might be resources. Yeah, I'm absolutely amazed that there might be resources out there for students. You know, it's fantastic.

Michael: 16:22

Well that's amazing. So you've really kind of blown up in a couple of months then, haven't you?

Ken: 16:27

Well, I used to actually, um, as I said I'm a bit of a nerd and in about 1996, I think it was maybe 97. I started building my own websites when the Internet first started and I wish had stuck out at, you know, so I was really into the Internet when it first came out. And then once I came to Thailand, I kind of lost interest in the internet and just kinda relaxed. I didn't have a holiday as such for a long time. And I just relaxed for a few years and it's only been maybe the last year or so that I've kind of looked and thought: Right. What's going on with the Internet, where does everything, and over the last two or three months, I've really felt, wow, what might a progress has been made online. It's just unbelievable. It's really shocked me. So I've kinda jumped. I've kinda jumped in with both feet if you like, you know?

Michael: 17:15

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It's really amazing to see you. And yeah, your, your Instagram is, I don't know if you think that's the best place to follow you, but that's where I see most of what you're doing and it's really amazing. You're putting out so much content and it's all really useful for English learners. Yeah, it looks good. I did want to ask you about Thai. So, so you said before you speak Thai, do you think you'd like, you have a good level? Are you like a proficient level of Thai?

Ken: 17:42

No, no. At all. I can understand when people are speaking, I can understand basic words. I can understand the just of conversations. I can order food, I can order drinks. Um, but really that's it, I can't have a deep and meaningful conversation at all with it at all. To my eternal shame.

Michael: 18:02

But that goes a long way, like kind of basic knowledge. I think that goes a long way.

Ken: 18:06

Yeah, I think so. I think, you know, if I'm out at the shopping mall or somewhere and the people are speaking and then I speak to them in Thai, they get a little bit excited. You know a F̄rạ̀ng like uh, I'll western guy can actually speak a little bit of Thai. It does earn you some brownie points, being able to speak the language, you know?

Michael: 18:24

Yeah, I can imagine. And I, I, I always think it really opens up so many new experiences when you travel. So when I travel, I always spend a few months before learning the basics. So right now I'm learning, I'm learning the tie alphabet and it's just horrible(be)cause they all look so similar that there's like such a tiny difference between them all.

Ken: 18:45

oh my God, the alphabet... the writing is just, I can understand words s tarting to understand words more, but the alphabet i s just crazy. You know with the high c onsonants and low continents and all of this.. Crazy.

Michael: 19:00

I'm really just scratching the surface now, but I kind of like that it's kind of Nice to be able to read even though you don't know the meanings of everything. Yeah. At least you know what, what things are kind of pronounced out so that that can be good sometimes.

Ken: 19:15

Yeah. I mean I'm still, I'm still, when I'm driving or that and I see some signs, I'll always try and speak what's on the sign to try and you know, to try and just practice my Thai, you know? But is quite difficult to to learn Thai.

Michael: 19:31

Yeah. I can imagine. Yeah.

Ken: 19:32

It's not like Spanish or Portuguese or anything, you know?

Michael: 19:35

Hmm. Yeah. I was also wondering, because I knew many countries, if I think of like Japan or something like that, they're very particular in their English teachers. They want like maybe a Caucasian person who has some standard RP, British accent. They want like a very specific person and as a Scottish person, have you found any difficulty like working in other countries or is it just, no problem? Is it the same as normal?

Ken: 20:04

You know, something I like anything else. And it's who, you know, it's, it's, it's your attitude more than anything, you know, I think in Thailand and you can have a degree in anything and get a job as a teacher, which I feel is really not a great thing to be honest, you know? Um, but it's, I think it should be more about your attitude and how you are, can you connect with people more than this is my accent, you know? And, but I, I've certainly had no problems. I mean, I, I've had some, my students all say that, you know, I speak quite slowly and clearly saw the understand more than anything you so I know from, I mean, I, I've learned a few languages, so I know what it's like to learn a language so I can understand what they're going through. And that kinda puts me on a few Brownie points in the class as well. So understand what the kids are going through in the learning, you know? Yeah,

Michael: 21:03

yeah. I think that definitely helps. And Yeah, I think you're right. It's the attitude that's the most important thing. And it's maybe the desire to help people learn, not, not just how you sound. Yeah,

Ken: 21:13

absolutely. That's, that's the key to it. You know, it doesn't really matter what you're saying, like as long as you can connect with people they enjoy speaking to you. And I think that's the most important thing to be honest with you. I think certainly in Asian countries where they haven't had a lot of experience speaking to, um, western people. You know, if you can just speak to them and you know, understand what they're going through, then you know, then the respond to that, you know?

Michael: 21:45

Yeah, definitely, definitely. You know, I've also found that many people, many people tend to avoid different accents that won't be stick to like standard American or standard British, you know, whatever that means. Yeah. Maybe they want to travel to Scotland or Ireland or something like that. And they have such a hard time understanding because they haven't practiced with those different accents. So I think it's always a good idea to kind of expand the type of English you're listening to as well.

Ken: 22:12

Absolutely. And I think I've certainly, since I've been on Instagram, there's been a walk, I get a lot of questions on Instagram, people saying, you know, how can I have a British accent or American accent and my reply to everybody is exactly the same. Concentrate on fluency and forget about accents. If you can, if you can become fluent, your accent will, um, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll develop, you know, but concentrate on fluency or listen to as many accents as you can, listen to as many different situations as you can and get yourself fluent before you try and keen to speak with an accent. I feel like, you know. Yeah.

Michael: 22:51

Yeah. That's great advice. Yeah. Cause I think many people try to specifically learn the accent and all these different sounds. And I think it can be quite hard to just force that upon the way you talk. Yeah,

Ken: 23:01

absolutely. I think a lot of people... what I'm finding, certainly since I've been on Instagram, is just because we all speak our own language, it doesn't mean that we can actually speak another language fluently. And it's Kinda hit me that, that, that, that Kinda, I don't know theory has Kinda hit me hard because a lot of students, they want to learn English quickly, but unless you practice, you're not going to learn quickly. You know? And a lot of students just don't..., You know, a lot of people don't put in the practice to, to learn that language.

Michael: 23:33

Hmm. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Instagram could be a really fantastic tool to get these like little bonus tips and motivated all these sorts of things. But on the other hand, it's maybe not a good idea to only follow people on Instagram and think that's all I need to do to learn and now I can just relax.

Ken: 23:51

Absolutely. I would say students as well. I mean when I was learning Spanish and Portuguese, certainly Spanish more I would, I would read and I would speak for like 15 minutes a day in Spanish. I would read a book or I would speak subtitles for about 15 minutes, so I started becoming used to the Spanish language and I always say to students, if you can speak 15 minutes a day, practise with yourself. This is going to help you so much when you come to, you know, when you come to the learning English and speaking English, you know?

Michael: 24:23

Yeah, yeah. Of course. It all adds up, doesn't it? Just a little bit a day. Is Is all you need, Really

Ken: 24:27

Absolutely. Consistency is the key in anything in life, you know?

Michael: 24:31

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It's kind of like I'm going to the gym. It's like building that language muscle.

Ken: 24:37

Absolutely. Exercise. I always say exercise your language. That's the way you should look on it. You know?

Michael: 24:44

Yeah good quote! Good quote!

Ken: 24:44

I always say students, if you go to the gym maybe once a week. You're not going to build up at all, you know? But if you do it consistently, there you go. You're going to become fluent a lot quicker.

Michael: 24:57

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I'm much more motivated when it comes to the language, but gym stuff, not really for me.

Ken: 25:05

I know the feeling.

Michael: 25:05

Um, so I wanna ask you one question and this is kind of become a tradition. I've asked all my other guests this, if you don't have anything to say that's fine. But I wondered, speaking Thai or did you say you also learn Portuguese or Spanish?

Ken: 25:21

I learned Portuguese from the television when I moved to Portugal and I learned Spanish as well. Yeah.

Michael: 25:27

So in any of those languages, can you think of any really embarrassing or funny situations you've had maybe where you've made a mistake or misunderstood something?

Ken: 25:39

Well, um, the one son made a mistake and it was for, I don't want to say it cause that's a rude word and the word for the word for chicken in Spanish is very similar to a... to the kind of anatomy of a male. And so I kinda made that mistake and I that was quite an embarrassing one, I never made that mistake again. You know,

Michael: 26:02

I don't really speak any Spanish, but that's really funny because I also spoke with someone else before. This was with a teacher pronunciation with Emma. That was a previous podcast interview and she had the exact same thing. She had the exact story, although she actually said the word,

Ken: 26:22

Well, the one word for chicken pollo. So the, you know, so yeah, it's very similar. Yeah.

Michael: 26:27

Oh, that's really weird how that happens in languages. How...

Ken: 26:31

I know, and of course in Thailand as well because it's a very syllabic language. You know, everything's all syllables, you know, and uh, you know, if you see the syllable wrong, it can mean something else. And when I first came, I remember I first came to Thailand, I taught in a school for boys and I was just learning Thai. So I would be speaking to them and I would say the, I would say with the wrong kind of, intonation if you like, you know, and uh, I would see the kids all laughing and I thought, right, I've said a swear word here, you know, so I kind of, I've got to watch what I'm saying, you know.

Michael: 27:09

Yeah, yeah. You don't wanna get in trouble for the accidents. Yeah.

Ken: 27:14

I had a teaching assistant, she was an old woman and she says, Ken I think, I think you should see this a little bit different.

Michael: 27:21

It is, it's nice that you've got someone to kind of give you some pointers though at least.

Ken: 27:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But thrown in at the deep end, you've got to Kinda, you know, learn from your mistakes, you know?

Michael: 27:31

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah. I've been having trouble with one recently cause I'm learning Chinese at the moment. Oh really? Fantastic. Yeah, it's very, obviously it's, I guess it's quite similar to Thai in many ways and like tonal and maybe the grammar, the fact that there's no prepositions. Yeah. The one I've had problems of recently is the difference between banana and the word for sex. To me, they sound very similar. Maybe not to a native speaker, but they sound so similar. And I kind of avoid saying it because I don't really want to say, you know, I'm eating sex or you know, it can get a bit strange. So it's always a challenge. But yeah, maybe you should just be more accepting and just laugh at your mistakes and learn from them.

Ken: 28:18

Yeah. That's it, I mean, I teach one of my classes, I teach about culture in different religions around the world. And we talk a little about, about the Muslim culture, about the Jewish culture, et cetera. And the word Jew in, in, uh, in Thai language is, again, is the male anatomy, you know? So, uh, so I have to be very careful. I can just see the grins coming along their faces, you know?

Michael: 28:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, I guess you'll never forget the word for Jew now, after, after that.

Ken: 28:49

Exactly. Yeah. So, yeah. So you've just got to be careful when you're speaking, you know.

Michael: 28:56

Yeah, definitely, definitely. But obviously have a, have a positive attitude.

Ken: 29:00

Absolutely.

Michael: 29:02

Maybe you know that I, the main thing I do is I'm an online teacher, so I teach online.

Ken: 29:07

How do you teach online? Do you have your own school or(are) you through an agency or something? What's the...?

Michael: 29:12

I do half and half, so I have my own website where people can book lessons and then we have lessons over Skype or something similar.

Ken: 29:20

Yeah. I was on your website with the link you sent. Yeah.

Michael: 29:23

Oh yeah, sure. Yeah. And the other way it's maybe half of my lessons will from Italki. Do you know, italki?

Ken: 29:29

I've heard of it, yeah. I know a lot of teachers on Instagram have Kinda signed up with them. Yeah.

Michael: 29:34

Yeah. So, yes, it's a good kind of online teaching platform and learning platform. Um, so yeah, that, that's very good.

Ken: 29:42

So how, how did, how did you get involved in teaching then?

Michael: 29:46

It's kind of, I don't quite remember, which sounds really weird, is a few years ago I previously worked as a gardener. So again, it's kind of like a quite a big career change and I didn't really fancy doing that my whole life because even though I enjoyed it, it's tough work, especially in the winter. So I fought about carefully what I, what I love to do and what my hobbies are and I love learning languages and I'm always fascinated that people can communicate just making these strange noises. So I decided to get into this. So I took, did some kind of training to teach ESL and started my own website, joined some websites as well. And yeah, it's kind of like snowballed from there. Yeah.

Ken: 30:37

Fantastic, excellent. So are you fairly new to Instagram or you've been there a while?

Michael: 30:41

I can't quite remember. Maybe a year or so. Um, yeah, I, I kind of post things, it's more, the podcast has become my main focus this part, these past few months because I find a lot more engagement on the podcast and it's something that I enjoy doing the most I think as well.

Ken: 30:59

Yeah. You've got to really enjoy it. You know, I think I'm on my Instagram or a few people have said, you need to do images and such like, and I think I don't enjoy doing images. I can't, I'm not, I can, I'm not a designer. I can't do it, you know? And, uh, so, you know, to, to do a one minute video takes me maybe 20 minutes, which is easy, you know? And so this is why I am like yourself, you know, I stick to what I'm good at and what I enjoy, you know?

Michael: 31:26

Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. I mean, your videos are great. You've got like the good kind of formatting and things like that. I like the opposite. I videos for me it seems to take a long time, whereas the pictures don't take much time at all. So I kind of try and do a mixture of pictures and video just to keep it, you know, not so time consuming for me.

Ken: 31:46

Right, right, right. Yeah. I've seen, I've seen a couple of your videos recently, a, that popped up on my timeline, very good.

Michael: 31:53

nice. Nice becoming famous. Uh, but I wanted to ask you if you've ever been interested in online teaching or has it ever come to your mind or do you think, obviously everyone's different, but do you think for you that classroom teaching is more enjoyable or better in any way?

Ken: 32:13

You know, so I started designing own courses. I've got a few courses that are put on Udemy and last year. And, uh, I just, I just filmed them and designed them, filmed them and put them on and they seem to be doing okay and, but the, the videos are quite poor quality. And so I've kind of been refilming them all and I'm going to be, I'm going to be kinda doing the one my own website rather than on Udemy you know, and I prefer face to face teaching to be honest with you. Um, but I'm also looking at technology and, uh, there's all these voice recognition Um, you know, applications that can help with language learning, which I'm looking into doing as well. But online teaching. I don't know if I can do or, not, I much prefer seeing someone's face and seeing their eyes, seeing what our thinking and then trying to help them, you know, it's very difficult for me online.

Michael: 33:14

Yeah. I think it's a very different, different thing isn't it? Because there's so much you're missing out on online and you don't see that, like all the tiny facial expressions and you're not, it's kind of hard to put into words, but there's just something missing there. So, yeah, that's a good point.

Ken: 33:28

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, in my reincarnation, a as a, as a in finance and financial advice on, I always used to love sitting in front of clients and watching them and seeing their body reactions and everything. You know, I'm really fascinated by, by people and how they react and I think that that helps me get close to people as well. But you know, being able to read them pretty well, you know?

Michael: 33:51

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I think you seem like a much more extroverted person than me. So maybe that's one difference between us.

Ken: 34:00

You know what, I'm very, very shy. I just like, yeah, I've got my, you know, on my Instagram, I'm called Ajarn Ken. Ajarn is the Thai word for teacher or professor.

Michael: 34:12

I wondered about that. I kind of wondered if I'd got your name wrong by calling you Ken or something.

Ken: 34:19

It's like a, ajarn Ken's this kind of person that's the online teacher, you know? And once I come away from it, I'm back to be normal Ken who is very, very quiet and you know, and does his own thing, you know?

Michael: 34:31

Yeah. It's exactly the same for me. Yeah. It's kind of like a persona that you take on, isn't it?

Ken: 34:35

That's it. Exactly. I always, remember I was reading about Beyonce, I don't know if you remember Beyonce. And she was talking about how when she was younger, she'd go on stage and do these danc.. These sexy dances and I, and she was talking about it and she says, when I'm on stage, I'm not Beyonce, I'm this girl called Sasha fierce. And when I come off stage, I'm back to being Beyonce again. And I thought that was absolutely fascinating the way she was describing it, you know? And uh, so this is where I came up with Ajarn Ken and I've got ajarnken.com website and uh, I'm Ajarn Ken and the teacher, but when I'm away from it, um, I'm Ken.. just Ken if you like, you know,

Michael: 35:14

interesting. Okay. So you've almost made a new name for your alter ego then.

Ken: 35:21

Well that's kinda helped, when I am Ajarn Ken, I don't have any fear of anything, you know, and you know of doing the videos, et cetera. But I think Ken, would be quite shy about doing it to be honest.

Michael: 35:33

Well that's interesting. Well you definitely don't come across that way. So I guess just personas working.

Ken: 35:39

Yeah. You're speaking to Ajarn Ken just now I think.

Michael: 35:41

Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. I used to work for a short while in like a kind of department store, like a big department store. And in these days I was really shy. Like, I could never talk to. Even someone asked me for directions on the street, I could barely say anything to them. I was too shy. And then when I went to my job and I was talking to customers every day, it easy. It was no problem. So it's really weird that there was that difference. And I think when I noticed there was a difference, I was able to kind of incorporate, you know, staff member Michael into real Michael and like build my confidence that way. Yeah, this is a good thing.

Ken: 36:23

Absolutely. This is something I put across to the students in my day-to-day classes. You know, when you come to class, you're the student here and you're able to make mistakes and when you make mistakes, it's part of.. and I came to drill them that when they go away, it's different. But when they're in the classroom, they can be anything they want to be, you know, and I came to push that across as well. And uh, I really enjoy the kids seeing the kids respond to it, you know?

Michael: 36:44

Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely, really good. Um, I... Maybe, maybe we'll finish up soon because I think we've been going for about 40 minutes. I think that,

Ken: 36:53

Okay I'm enjoying it!

Michael: 36:55

oh, okay. When we can go longer if you want to, I'm just thinking about questions to ask you before we run out of time. I want to know if you have any kind of recommended resources or even just advice for learners out there that are struggling to learn English.

Ken: 37:13

Hmm. I think one of the things, I always.. I get a lot of questions from students on, on my Instagram page. I kinda tell students, look, ask me any question you want and I'll respond to you. And one of the things, how can I improve my listening? And there's a great website called breakingnewsenglish.com. And it's just basically the news, but there's somebody speaking it and you can follow the text and there's like questions on it, et Cetera as well. It's an excellent resource for students to help improve their listening and their comprehension of English, which is a fantastic resource. I really enjoy that.

Michael: 37:52

Yeah, I've seen that. I've seen that around it. So it's a good website. And I think, if I remember correctly, can you change the level of English or is that, am I thinking

Ken: 37:59

absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You can change the level of English. You can change the speed of the person speaking. Yeah it's a fantastic resource. Always tell students, you know, that that should be a port of call for you to practice your English, you know?

Michael: 38:12

Yeah, definitely. So I'll put a link to that in the show notes of the podcast, so if anyone wants to find it, you can. Yeah, fantastic. Really good. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess also you can kind of learn about what's happening around the world as well at the same time.

Ken: 38:25

Absolutely. And I think one of the things I found certainly teaching out here in Thailand is a lot of students don't know, they know.. how to put it... They don't know how to learn, they know what to learn, but they don't know how to learn, if that makes sense. And a, there's not much critical thinking out here. So I think, you know, reading up on the news and et Cetera is really kind of helps develop students as well. So I think it's a great website to, to use, you know?

Michael: 38:54

Yeah, no, definitely. Definitely that's really, really good advice. I don't use that so much. I haven't seen it so much, but I definitely make people aware of that. Awesome. Yeah.

Ken: 39:02

Yeah, it's a great website I feel, and obviously students as well, the one thing they always say is: Ken, I don't have Native a English speaker to practice with and this is true for 90% of the students and I always say to them, work, get yourself a book or a blog article or a news article or a newspaper or something that you enjoy and speak when you read. Speak for 15 minutes and practice your speaking e very d ay and that way it will really, really help you improve your English skills. You know, it's all about practice, all about practice.

Michael: 39:38

Definitely. Yeah. I think reading can go a really long way. I mean, obviously there are some things you're missing. Like, you know, people can't correct you if you're on your own. Yes. It's still, it's a really fantastic thing to do. Just read and speak. But that's what I do in my Chinese every day.

Ken: 39:53

Yeah. I mean, I, I've done it in Spanish. I would read the Spanish newspaper for like 15 minutes a day and you know, I'd just: me llamo Ken blah, blah, blah. And I would speak for about 15 minutes before my work and in the evening I'd be listening to the radio and actually, my listening skills became a lot better cause I was starting to pick up words in Spanish, et Cetera, just by reading the newspaper, you know? So it really helped me improve very, very quickly.

Michael: 40:19

Yeah. Yeah. It's important to study those different things so you can kind of make that link between what you're hearing and what you're reading, especially get different, different, script. Maybe like Thai.

Ken: 40:30

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And the last thing I'll say is, uh, one thing I did as well, and it's something I've, I've pushed to my students, is to write dialogues where you're in different situations and that practice, those dialogues. I did that in Spanish. I'd be walking to the coffee shop and I'd have this dialogue in my mind. What would I say? What would they say? I have a two-way dialogue and again, not really, really helped me, you know, when I was learning another language.

Michael: 40:58

Well that's a good idea. That's not something that I really do actually. But that does sound very beneficial. And I guess you're kind of practicing this real life situations and not just textbook stuff.

Ken: 41:07

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean I, I remember I was looking for an apartment to rent in Spain and I saw the sign that said, you know, in Spanish___ for rent. And I had a telephone number. Now I was really, really nervous about phoning because I had to speak in Spanish. So I wrote a dialogue. What would I say? What would they say? What would I say? What would they say? What might they not say? What might they say, and I practiced it, you know, and, uh, I ended up phoning the number. My heart was beating so fast, I was so nervous. And, uh, I ended up phoning the number and the conversation went exactly how I had planned and I, yeah. And I could, you know, I could speak to them and...( spanish words!). I would say, well, I'm looking for an apartment to rent. They say, okay, when can I come and see it? And I went exactly how to apply for, gave me a lot of confidence, you know? And so I would definitely say write dialogues for different situations that really, really helps.

Michael: 42:05

That's amazing. Yeah, I'll definitely try that myself as well, so, yeah. Good idea. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Um, before we say goodbye today, is there anything else, I mean, before you mentioned you have your Udemy course, so if you like, if you send me a link, I'd be happy to link that in my website as well. But is there anything else that you'd like people to know about you, like what you're working on or anywhere to send people?

Ken: 42:30

Um, well, I've got my, as I said, I'm just, I've got my, um, I want to build up the biggest collection of English videos on Instagram, that, that's my goal for the, for the end of the year. Just purely, so if anyone wants to have a look at my Instagram is@getenglishtips on Instagram and I've got my Udemy. I'm actually, hopefully by the end of the year I'll have a book out as well. And it's, a nd i t's a collection of tips from speaking to different teachers and what their advice i s, e t c etera. S o I'm, I'm g oing t o be hopefully by the end of the year, that should be in the final throes of getting, seeing the light of day, i f y ou like as well. So, yeah. So I've got my online courses. I'll be h aving my book out soon and u h, a nd my Instagram as well.

Michael: 43:15

Fantastic. Fantastic. Is that a a book book or like an Ebook?

Ken: 43:19

Well I'm gonna try, I actually want to have it as an audio book because I feel that if you're learning a language, you know, it should be Kinda a spoken word, but, um, hopefully it should be a, an audiobook and I'm going to try and have it as a book book as well and get it translated into different languages as well.

Michael: 43:39

Oh, that sounds amazing. I'd love to see that when it's done

Ken: 43:44

well, hopefully you can. You can, you can come on my Instagram live and I can interview for the book, you know?

Michael: 43:50

Yes, I'd love to. I'd love to like, despite being terrified, but.

Ken: 43:54

yeah, don't worry about it. just pretend there's nobody watching.

Michael: 43:57

Yeah, that's good advice. Um, well yeah. Well thank you very much. It's been really good to get to know you and chat with you.

Ken: 44:05

Thank you very much. Anytime, any time. I'd love to do that again.

Michael: 44:07

Yeah, we'll have to, we'll have to arrange something again, so thank you so much and I'll see you. See you next time.

Ken: 44:12

Take good care of yourself. Thanks very much.

Michael: 44:16

So if you want to view the show notes for this episode, you can go to ewmicheal. com/ken. That's forward slash K E. N Ken thank you as very much for watching and I will see you next week. you have been listening to the English with Michael Podcast to view the podcast notes for this episode and to listen to previous episodes. Head over to ewmicheal.com/ podcast